time to Consider the Humble Lighthouse! i have been dying over this since the finale. iām so angry at how many layers there are to the use of the lighthouse as a metaphor and connective theme tissue.
to start off: in a really interesting way, the lighthouse isnāt treated as a stede-mary beat which is then continued and turned into a separate stede-ed beat. i think thereās a less nuanced version of this show that would spin things that wayāmary wasnāt stedeās perfect romantic co-captain, ed is, so we just pack up shop and take the lighthouse with us, leaving mary behind and making the lighthouse solely about stede and ed by the finale.
thatās a pretty traditional setup! we tend to elevate a narrow view of romantic love as superior to all else outside maybe an equally narrow definition of family, and writing off a first wife we are never allowed to see as a character in her own right as useless and a hinderance to a newer and more important romantic connection before shuffling her off, never to be seen again, is preeeeetty fucking staple in the history ofā¦ you know. stories existing.
the folks at ofmd donāt roll like that, though, so the finale officially cements the lighthouse as a mary - stede - ed thematic three part harmony instead. iād lay down money the black cravat that ends up around all three of their necks is an extra nudge that we should be connecting them thematically alongside a visual representation of the way they function as a trio in the story. honestly until david himself says iām wrong, as far as iām concerned the cravat is tied to the lighthouse. the cravat is officially Part Of It.
the lighthouse is in the background of the first three episodes, but itās first contextualized for us in e4, at mary and stedeās wedding. the use of āhumble lighthouseā (especially when paired with the emphasis on how mary and stedeās marriage is about the ugly, soul-crushing machinery of inherited wealth and capitalism, placing authentic love in direct opposition to both) is driving me wild for reasons that need their own insanely long breakdown, but for now iāll throw the whole quote:
Consider the humble lighthouse; a beacon, an unwavering light that guides.
despite edās later commentary, this is not actually an incorrect interpretation of a lighthouse. the beacon tells sailors land is near, and through that it guides them towards shore and safety. this all, as they say, scans. itās an optimistic and metaphorical take on the lighthouse, but itās not wrong.
you might say itās the take of a man who lived his life between the pages of a book, never experiencing the reality of a lighthouse and only ever seeing the shadows their beacons cast on his walls, lovingly cradling the shape of the thing but never the actuality! interesting, that.
in that same vein, when mary tries to give him the painting of the lighthouse, stede isnāt able to see the things she could teach him if he felt like listeningāhis Ā assumption the kids made it is a pretty textbook example of never wasting a joke and informing character through comedy, just as a structure nerd aside.
i need to write a post 100% about mary and how mary and stedeās relationship is crucial to the story in a way that thrills me, but for now iāll put it this way: even if he hasnāt internalized what she told him about how to be a lighthouse for somebody else, in large part thanks to mary, stede carries the potential to be just that along with him when he sneaks away like a literal thief in the night. god love that selfish foppish nutcase. i really do adore him.
as a visual echoing of this, despite not understanding the lessons mary was already primed to teach him, the painting of the lighthouse is the only specific reminder of his family stede takes with him. the books matter for other reasons and he brings the trappings of his class status, all gloriously tailored to his specific comfort, but the lighthouse is the sole notable reminder he had a life and family before the ship and crew.
then we get to ed and stedeās first conversation about the lighthouse. iāll slap that quote down here, too:
Well,Ā technically, youāre supposed to avoid lighthouses. So you donāt crack up on the rocks.
despite what i said about the priestās more upbeat example, edās not wrong either. a lighthouse also functions as a warning to sailors that if they donāt watch it, they might sail right the fuck into the instruments of their own demise.
you might say thatās the take of a man who has never seen himself between the pages of a book, only knowing the dangers of a lighthouse and seeing grotesque caricatures instead of his true face projected in the low and flickering light, angrily avoiding pain while barred from enjoying the fantasies of a lighthouseās more joyful potential!
these writers are The Worst. they want me to suffer and i love them like izzy loves the Weird Vore, i just want that on record.
the scene where stede and ed literally become a lighthouse together really deserves a lot more analysis all on its own and if youāre reading this thereās a 50/50 shot you could describe it to me shot for shot anyway so what i will say about it here is this: itās fucking great. additionally, i will also say that in muppet treasure island, a muppet also imitates a foghorn. coincidence or proof of my grand unifying call to muppetĀ theory? personally, i choose to believe.
off flogging my favorite dead muppet horse, the lighthouse then takes a comfortable backseat until the finale.
first, on stedeās end, we get his return to mary and realization/atonement. the careful attention the writers give his character there and the annoyingly good return from underworld cycle but make it fractured fairytale also deserves way more attention, but this is about the lighthouse. i can cry about greek myths later, because once stede goes through his requisite trials and nearly gets a skewer in the ear for it heās finally ready to hear what maryās been telling him all along.
itās pretty obvious that for many reasons, including but not limited to the painfully obvious truth that this man is So Very Gay, stede was never ever going to be entirely happy with mary. but because he came back and validated her pain and set himself to making real amends she gifts him the ability to share her emotional intelligence: finally, stede knows how to be a lighthouse.
and thank god for it, because over on edās end of things heās not doing so hot. heās tossing perfect angels we must protect but who are simultaneously absolutely not dead, not even a little, It Shall Not Even Be Considered, overboard and crying alone in his cabin, staring at that damn painting. just like stede before he returned to mary and completed that leg of the journey he needed to take in order to be edās lighthouse, ed doesnāt know how to translate the answer in maryās painting.
but because mary was the one to take stedeās sweet lil face between her hands and blow his fucking mind with some basic facts about love and how yes, he is allowed to give and receive affection andĀ equipped with the revelation that the word love applies to him, he can spread the good news.Ā
you know who else needs to learn that lesson? sing it with me if you know the words and youāre still crying over ed throwing his heart overboard because if stede, the very first person to look at blackbeard and only ever see ed, couldnāt love himā¦ who could?Ā
(FUCK YOU, DAVID JENKINS FUCK YOOOOOU. ETC. part of me says i should have deleted this part of my outline but you know what? no. this is my tumblr. i do what i want. THE PRIMAL SCREAM STAYS. THAT WAS HURTFUL AND I AM HURT.)
when stede left he set mary free in a lot of ways, but he hurt her deeply at the same time. if the emotional consequences of leaving mary, a woman who didnāt love him, were hefty the emotional consequences of leaving edĀ are a million times worse. when he left ed, he gutted him. this will not be an easy fix, but the love stede brought into his life and the horrible pain has shredded blackbeardās armor. for better or worse, heās ed now.
this is where it gets really good. now stedeās return to mary ties him back to ed and in the same stroke ties ed to mary, through emotion and now basic story math they all own a piece of this lighthouse.
at the beginning of the season, stede left mary for the sea and though he didnāt know it yet, for ed. that places mary and ed in the same story position when it comes to stede, and now weāve seen what happened when he returned to mary.
iām only saying, team. blackbonnet public apology and stede accounting his sins while taika comes for my fucking neck because lbr, ed probably cries and wears an even more belly-exposing crop top: itās coming. this is just math. and once it happens, i really donāt think heās leaving again.
so, where does that leave us with the lighthouse? thereās a lot of stuff tied up here, and one of the more fascinating aspects has to do with stede and his evolution from Cosplay Pirate to Actual Class Traitor (we love a glow up, we truly do)Ā like i brushed over above when i was nerding out about the use of humble, but the way this show interacts with class and capitalism is way too complex to do it any justice right now. i just couldnāt help shouting it out, because how fucking cool is this show? so cool. so very cool.
since i dealt with the way the lighthouse functions to connect ed-mary-stede and setting that Whole Other Kettle of Class War Fish/all its associated other kettles aside, i want toĀ end on the lighthouse representing not only ed and stedeās relationship, but the idea of balance in a relationship.
if i want to get real basic and binary, ed brings the āthis is how it isā practicality and life experience, stede theĀ āokay, but what if it was different?ā imagination.
but i donāt want to do that, because i think thatās not entirely wrong but itās also not quite right.Ā if we take it a level deeper and get back to theĀ text itself, the two takes on the lighthouse turn from an argument into a duet. a lighthouse, like a good partner, serves both as a guiding light to safe harbor and the best person to remind you that itās like the good book says: in life one surely must check oneself, lest one wreck oneself.Ā
thatās not a job for one partner, but a promise made by the people involved; giving and taking andĀ meeting in the middle.
in this case, a promise made by two perfect co-captains.
fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck me, i love this show.
( this monstrosity has a playlist that served as my writing music, because everything is gay pirates. this is my life now. find it here. )
stormborns
tangentwithtanner
andulkaphoto
gracieabrams
blakekathryn
amandla
